Todd’s grit turns into record time in 800
INDIANAPOLIS – The defining moment of Cameron Todd’s running was not when he became state champion in cross-country. Or state runner-up at 1,600 meters. Or national runner-up in cross-country.
For the Brebeuf Jesuit senior, it was the race when, as a fifth-grader representing the Orchard School, he had to vomit . . . and resumed running.
“That’s when we knew the boy had some guts,” said his mother, Talicia Todd.
Or, if not that race, it was a workout in which Todd was pedaling a stationary bike so hard he created a puddle of sweat. He was trying to regain fitness after a stress reaction in his shin. He was “nearly crying,” said Karl Knerr, the longtime Brebeuf distance coach.
Tears transformed to cheers soon thereafter. Todd, as a sophomore, helped Brebeuf become the second small school since the 1960s to win Indiana’s team title in cross-country. Now, all that grit and devotion are being manifested on the track.
In Wednesday’s Marion County boys meet at Pike High School, Todd dropped down to the 800 meters and broke a 40year-old record with a time of 1:52.27, fastest in Indiana this year. He followed that with a 50.6 leg in the 4x400 relay.
Todd’s record was the highlight on a night North Central repeated as county champion. The Panthers scored 92.5 points to 88 for Lawrence North, which lost 10 points due to disqualification in the 4x100 relay.
North Central, anchored by junior Dehnm Holt, won the climactic 4x400 relay in 3:16.94, a county record and state leader. Earlier, Holt won the 400 in 47.94, also a county record.
Todd said he appreciated the loud crowd down the stretch of his record run.
“I have a new appreciation for other people who run the 800 often,” he said. “When people say it’s the toughest event, I know what they’re talking about.”
Todd’s love was basketball. His room is decorated with Pacers posters and a pair of shoes autographed by Glenn Robinson III. As a kid, he would shave his head into a gold mohawk so he would be shown on the Pacers’ video board.
Alas, his own hoops dreams were that. Just dreams.
“Let’s just say it was not my calling,” Todd said.
Still, he was fearless. He was skiing at age 3. He has skied mostly at Perfect North in Lawrenceburg, where Nick Goepper developed into a three-time Olympic medalist, but also in Colorado, Utah and the Whistler slopes in British Columbia.
Todd needed to be bold, with his career coinciding with some of the top runners ever to come out of Indiana: Reese Kilbarger-Stumpf, Kole Mathison, Martin Barco, Will Conway.
Todd won’t lack for competition at Notre Dame, either. He is in a recruiting class that includes Pennsylvanians Drew Griffith and Ryan Pajak, who went 1-2 in Foot Locker cross-country at San Diego, where Todd was eighth. (Todd was second in Nike nationals at Portland, Ore.) Griffith set a national indoor two-mile record of 8:34.91.
Todd has grown into a leadership role at Brebeuf, Knerr said, because he was mentored by older teammates.
He was fifth scorer on the team winning cross-country state on what he said was “the best day of my life so far.” Runner Nos. 2-5 were separated by 10.6 seconds. They were tight on and off the track.
This year, Todd influenced two friends, state-qualifying swimmer Finn Crist and two-time state champion soccer player Teddy Potts, to come out for track — for the first time. For seniors to do so is rare indeed.
“They’re out because of him. Talk about charisma,” Knerr said. “He just makes that great connection with kids.”
Todd has run historic times — his 8:46.55 at 3,200 meters ranks No. 3 in Indiana history behind Conway and Mathison — but is not obsessed by the clock.
In the Circle City Conference, for instance, he won the 800 in 1:55.31, 1,600 in 4:20.24 and 3,200 in 9:15.17, all modest times. Two were meet records anyway. Brebeuf came up three points short of Bishop Chatard.
“He does it with a smile on his face,” Knerr said.
For the state meet, Todd can aim for rematches against Barco, of Martinsville, in the 1,600 and perhaps with Conway, of Floyd Central, in the 3,200. Speed shown by Todd in the 800 — with laps of 55.5 and 56.6 — boosted his confidence, he said.
Irrespective of outcomes, he will have no complaints. After those weeks of being in the pool and on a stationary bike, no suffering in any race could be worse.
“I could never have imagined how thankful I was just to be out running again,” Todd said. “It has had a lasting impact on me.”